DZS Achieves U.S. BEAD Program “Build America Buy America” Manufacturing Readiness Certification

　　DZS (OTC: DZSI), a global leader of Networking, Connectivity and Cloud Edge software solutions enabling broadband everywhere, today announced that the company’s U.S. manufactured electronic components have been certified as compliant with the domestic manufacturing requirement enumerated in the “Build America Buy America” (BABA) waiver for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. On October 16, 2024, the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) announced a list of specific equipment and suppliers self-certifying their compliance with the NTIA’s final limited waiver of BABA requirements of the BEAD Program which included certain manufactured products such as Optical Line Terminals (OLTs), OLT line cards, Optics pluggables and standalone Optical Network Terminals (ONTs). DZS today manufactures a wide range of OLTs and OLT line cards that are BABA certified, as well as a full portfolio of gateway ONTs with integrated WiFi and Layer 2 routing which makes them compliant with the BEAD wavier requirements.

　　“DZS, a Texas-based broadband Networking, Connectivity, and Cloud Edge software solutions company and our world-class manufacturing partner Fabrinet, are proud to be one of five electronic components manufacturers certified to meet all NTIA BABA manufacturing requirements for BEAD,” said charlie Vogt, President and CEO, DZS. “Unique among our peers, we have a multi-decade commitment to manufacturing in the United States and specialize in environmentally hardened equipment ideal for rural deployments, including fiber access, fiber extension and fixed wireless access solutions. Above and beyond BEAD BABA requirements, we manufacture our leading-edge Saber optical transport solutions in the U.S. which are critical for the middle Mile portion of BEAD projects. For operators planning to pursue BEAD government stimulus funds, DZS is fully compliant with NTIA’s guidelines today and we are ready to leverage our comprehensive portfolio of market-leading solutions to help these broadband pioneers achieve the shared mission of bringing high-speed internet to all Americans.”

　　DZS’ market-leading Networking Edge solutions (OLTs and middle Mile transport), Connectivity Edge solutions (ONTs, gateways, fiber extension and fixed wireless access) and Cloud Edge software solutions (automation, orchestration and SDN management) are ideally suited for BEAD deployments, offering service providers end-to-end peace-of-mind and best-in-class performance. In addition, DZS offers unique solutions like its award-winning FiberWay and DZS Xtreme to make it easy for rural operators to quickly deploy and manage services remotely and in remote environments.